Open call for works from Deutschlandradio kultur

Following a great response to last year’s open call for works, Deutschlandradio Kultur – Radio Drama / Klangkunst and CTM Festival, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst, Ö1 Kunstradio and the ECAS/ICAS networks, are pleased to release a second call for artistic projects seeking unusual ideas for coupling the medium radio with the potentials of live performance or installation, while also relating to the CTM 2015 Festival theme: Un Tune – Exploring Sonic Affect.

The call is open to artists in the fields of experimental music, sound art, radio art, new radio drama, and performance. Two chosen commissioned works will be presented as a Deutschlandradio Kultur – Klangkunst broadcast and premiered as a performance or installation at CTM 2015 Festival in Berlin (23 January – 1 February 2015). The works will also be presented by the Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation) via one of their platforms (depending on the character of the works): the ORF Zeit-Ton or Ö1 Kunstradio radio shows, or the ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst festival in Graz.

Proposed projects should result in 40-55 minute long radio versions.

A special note that last year’s winning projects, selected from over 300 submissions, will once again be presented live in the fall of 2014 as a performance or radio broadcast. The French radio collective P-node will partner-up with local radio activists and artists during the ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst festival, to create an experimental radio laboratory in the festival’s host city of Graz, Austria (7 – 12 October). On 10 October the group will visit the studio for a live broadcast on Ö1 Zeit-Ton extended. “Walk That Sound” by Serbian artist Lukatoyboy will be aired on 12 October via the ORF Ö1 Kunstradio programme.

UN TUNE

Through its Un Tune theme, CTM 2015 aims to engage with the direct bodily effects of frequencies, sound, and music as well as with their synergistic effects with other sensory stimuli. Artistic experimentation with the affective and somatic effects of sounds and frequencies opens up possibilities of tuning and de-tuning the composite that interconnects body, matter, energy, and (musical) machines – and to explore the workings of our perception.

With the discovery of electricity, sound recording, and electro-acoustics, the coupling of sound and sounding body is no longer inevitable, yet at the same time is rendered more intense than ever before. In the digital age, sound finally became fully autonomous: As a pure stream of information it is now amenable to any method of synthesis, transformation, or analysis without the involvement of a sounding body in the conventional sense. In return, artists today increasingly search for new ways to re-inject their own bodies and others back into electronic music, and evaluate new roles for the body in the field of sound.

Sonic events – e.g. noises, sounds, music – are not perceived by the ear alone. Their effect upon the human body goes beyond the stimulation of the various sensory organs. Acoustic vibrations obtrude and invade the body and its tissues, and are processed not only at a conscious level but also unconsciously, triggering uncontrollable physiological and physic reactions.

Technological developments now give us the means with which to better understand and explore these and other affects. Such artistic experimentation operates between antagonistic coordinates such as pleasure and displeasure, self-empowerment and the internalisation of control mechanisms, personal and collective experience, and the experience of the self as both subject and object.

At the same time, machines have themselves become part of our self-perception and of the perception of our environment. Distinctions between natural, ambient, and anthropogenic sound sources have gradually eroded, joining human and non-human actants into one structure: a sonic landscape that is no longer purely natural nor merely a backdrop, but is always permeated by culture and technology. In order to embrace such experiences, dissolution or loss of control in the form of a temporary disempowerment of the perceiver’s position as the listening subject is required. Through such decentralisation we become open to non-hierarchical connections between our surrounding sonic phenomena and allow ecological dimensions to enter the study of the affective potential of sound.

In the spectrum between bio-acoustics, field recordings, ambient, flicker, brainwave entrainment, binaural beats, biofeedback, psychoacoustics, neo-psychedelia, hypnotic repetition, noise, and sub-bass vibrations, Un Tune will present works by artists who explore the affective potential of frequencies, sound, and music, such as to address and disturb the human body in troubling and emphatic ways. The interaction between technological systems, immersive environments, and ritualistic practices opens up spaces of experience that temporarily destabilize our habitual states. Unusual fluctuations in space-time, new intensities of sensory experience, and new ways of perceiving create situations that transcend our usual state of being, and may unlock emancipatory potential.

CTM 2015’s Un Tune theme thus shifts the focus from questions of music’s symbolic and cultural significance to questions of the use and functionality of sound and music as affective forces. Somewhere in between physics and cultural semantics, the theme moves from asking “what does music attempt to portray?” to “what effects do sound and frequencies have upon us?”. This questioning also further blurs the distinction between noise, sound, and music – a gradual development that was subject to much artistic practice of recent years and decades.

This open call for works seeks artistic works and new experimentation that critically and creatively reflect on such phenomena. What are the controllable and uncontrollable entry points into the body, perception, sensation, and imagination via technology such as radio, Internet, mobile communication media, and via experiential spaces such ass concert halls, clubs or even one’s own apartment? What potential lies within the manipulation of daily sound environments, or of the interconnection of various collective and individual acoustic experiences? What are the physical and physiological bases of such potential? And how do physical and physiological phenomena correlate to cultural and mental processes? What are the boundaries or confluences between self-empowered activation and heteronomy, between individual and collective experience?

A more detailed description of the Un Tune theme is available via the CTM Festival website:

Submissions from all over the world are encouraged. Submitted projects must be new and as of yet unrealized. A comprehensive project description facilitates assessment by the jury. Submissions should be written in English and include the following materials:

– CV (PDF)

– Project description (PDF) with reference to the themes and formats described within the call

The international jury will be comprised of five persons from various backgrounds (artists, curators, journalists) and will be disclosed together with the results.

Budget

The selected works will be supported by a production budget/fee of EUR 5000 each. Technical/staging costs for CTM and eventual ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst festival performances will also covered. Travel expenses to Berlin, as well as lodging for artists will be covered if necessary. Deutschlandradio Kultur and CTM Festival will provide support, counselling, and general assistance during the production of the work.

PARTNERS

CTM – Festival for Adventurous Music and Arts

CTM is the leading festival for innovative pop, electronic, and experimental music in Germany. With a mix of concerts and club events, the festival has implemented programming at numerous bastions of Berlin nightlife and culture, and presents internationally renowned artists alongside exhibitions, talks, film screenings, and workshops. International, intensely networked, and always in close contact with artists, professionals, and the public, CTM’s year-round activities make critical contributions to a vibrant and artistically innovative music culture. Extending beyond the conventional parameters of a music festival, CTM is a platform for thinking about music, its social relevance, and the conditions from which it emerges. As a partner to Berlin’s concurrent international festival for art and digital culture broadcasting, transmediale, CTM is resonant and relevant entity across all creative tropes.

The weekly “Klangkunst” (“Sound Art”) broadcast (formerly “Hörspiel Werkstatt”) was launched in January 1995 by Deutschlandradio Kultur, German National Radio’s cultural programme. The broadcast was established to extend the formal possibilities of radio play, to experiment with new genres, and to introduce listeners to outstanding examples of international sound art. The programme covers the entire range of new radio art, from experimental sound play to poetry, text-sound collages, soundscapes, multilingual compositions, and electronic and digital radio performances. International networking and exchange among international radio artists are critical dimensions of the programme. Klangkunst is understood as a laboratory for testing the widest possible range of sounds. The programme draws from the varied motifs of diverse sonic environments, creating new amalgams of sound dramaturgy, narrative structures, compositional arcs, and characteristics of radio as a medium. Klangkunst is a member of the Ars Acustica group of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

The Goethe-Institut is the Federal Republic of Germany’s worldwide cultural institute. It promotes knowledge of the German language abroad and fosters international cultural cooperation. The Goethe-Institut provides a comprehensive picture of Germany by disseminating information on the country’s cultural, social, and political life. Through a network of Goethe-Institut offices, centres, cultural societies, and reading rooms / language examination and learning centers, the Goethe-Institut has promoted worldwide cultural and educational policy for over sixty years.

Networking Tomorrow’s Art for an Unknown Future is a project supported by the European Commission Culture Programme and an initiative of ECAS – European Cities of Advanced Sound, a consortium of European members of the international network ICAS – International Cities of Advanced Sound. Thirty-five organizations and festivals on four continents have joined forces to support mutual development and to promote artistic practises at the interface of music, art, technology and society. Important goals include the exchange of knowledge, capacity building, best practices, and shared cultural and political work. The ECAS project, Networking Tomorrow’s Art for an Unknown Future (2010-2015), is a collaborative European platform for new forms of experimental artistic work within the fields of sound, music, and current technologies. In addition to promoting critical artistic practice, the project aims to re-think the structures that underlie and support these practices through ECAS conferences and meetings, co-productions, artist residencies, and artist and researcher production grants.

Austria’s Festival Platform for Contemporary and Experimental Music. Functioning as a kind of laboratory, musikprotokoll invites the audience to embark on an exploratory journey to discover the latest developments and trends in music, with all the artistic risks that this entails. From orchestral music with the ORF Radio Symphonieorchester Wien to chamber music, from live performances to sound installations, musikprotokoll highlights a wide range of intriguingly heterogeneous forms and genres and presents works that are for the most part developed and produced specifically for the festival.

Founded by Emil Breisach in 1968, musikprotokoll is organised annually by ORF (Austrian Broadcasting). It is a co-production of the ORF’s two stations, Radio Österreich 1 (Ö1) and Radio Steiermark, which broadcast presented works in cooperation with the steirischer herbst festival.

Ö1 Kunstradio has dedicated itself to experimental radio art since 1995. The show has featured many artistic projects which crosslink radio with tangible, intangible, and public spaces, giving artists an entry point and platform for public radio production and broadcasting.